(Image: Noah Lubin with permission to CHS)
District 3’s Joy Hollingsworth, representing the Central District and Capitol Hill where memories of the 2020 multi-week conflict between protesters and police are still fresh in the minds of residents and area businesses, sat out on several votes Tuesday as the Seattle City Council public safety committee she is part of finalized legislation creating new rules for Seattle Police Department crowd control.
Hollingsworth abstentions came as the committee rejected amendments that would have toughened restrictions and made it easier for people injured by police to sue. The second-year city legislator also decided to abstain on the committee vote approving chair Bob Kettle’s bill that now goes onto the full council for final approval.
In her comments, Hollingsworth said that crowd control policies were not “a priority” for her right now as her office remains focused on increasing the number of patrol officers available in the city. CHS reported on the ongoing recruitment efforts at SPD as the department reported that last year it hired more officers than it lost for the first time in five years. The department cut it close, adding 84 new cops while losing 83.
CHS reported here on the legislation needed to replace SPD’s crowd control policy as part of changes required to fully end federal oversight of the department. The new rules will leave the discretion on deploying crowd control weapons like pepper spray and blast balls to SPD incident commanders while requiring outside agencies like the Washington State Patrol to follow SPD’s command in crowd control situations.
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CM Hollingsworth certainly positions herself as a one-term member. It’s a cowardly, nonsensical choice to not take a position on legislation before the council, unless you have a conflict of interest.
Must remain Hassle’s prettiest even if humiliating.
Such an inspiration!
Going to tell my kids that if they dream big, someday they might be able to assume a position of power and then defer all decisions and responsibility too.
Power to (some other) people! ✊
I hope she’s able to get back to more important issues like reducing worker pay soon.
restaurants closing every day or eliminating staff to reduce costs…most people rich enough to dine out reducing or eliminating tipping all together. nice work!
more restaurant’s opened than closed last year.
“In her comments, Hollingsworth said that crowd control policies were not “a priority” for her right now”
No…her reelection is. Nothing she does will increase or decrease cops. It’s all been done already. She’s going to take credit for something she didn’t even do. We are hiring more than are leaving already. The ship has sailed on this. 30′ on the waterline, nicely making way.
Gutless politicians can’t even vote.
No she is done the work and allowing co council to vote. Not a coward
She didn’t vote! Hello? Don’t give some lazy excuse for being a coward. She was elected to vote.
Yup. She needs to fucking vote.
The ones making excuses are the ones who will excuse her from anything. A lot like Trump.
lol, lmao even
“Hollingsworth chose to abstain. … ‘I’ll be super frank, I have shared this privately and publicly, that this was not a priority of mine.’ She went on to question why council is discussing less lethal weapons policy given police understaffing and lack of police response to ‘break-ins, vandalism and robberies.’ She also spoke of her gratitude for SPD.”
Source: https://www.theurbanist.org/2025/01/17/seattle-council-poised-to-allow-expanded-use-of-less-lethal-crowd-control-weapons
Not unlike former House Speaker Boehner’s gleefully enriching himself marketing cannabis while scores languished in federal/state prison for draconian non-violent drug offenses, this mediocre and specious shape-shifting clown has the obtuse nerve to attempt the same, while deliberately shredding state/federal constitutions (SODA/SOAP) in order to wage idiotic immoral war upon people who use drugs, and now ritualistically sucking up to power and privilege like some pathetic toady duly sworn jingoistic cop-worship, bowing to her self-fashioned shrine of hypocritical hand jive. At least Sawant was substantively coherent, and was sincere (whether or not one agreed with her various positions). Flailing charlatan Hollingsworth hails from a hypocritical self-dealing moral wasteland, and reduces her Council position to desperately efforts of vainglorious triumph of form over function.
Wait a minute… A member of the City Council’s Public Safety committee actually said crowd control policies were not “a priority” for her right now. Rather, she was focused on hiring more officers. So, she’s only capable of considering one public safety issue at a time and everything else gets an abstention??? Wish I’d known that before I voted!